Newspaper staff members pick the top stories of 2011

With the year's end almost here, the Enterprise-Record has compiled its annual listing of the top 10 local news stories of 2011. The rankings are chosen by a vote of the newsroom, from a ballot assembled by leafing back through the year's daily news logs.

The countdown starts today with stories ranked 10th through sixth. The top five will be revealed Saturday.

10) Firefighter accused of arson

A series of 20 suspicious fires starting in July had residents of the upper Paradise ridge on edge for several months, then startled when an arson suspect was arrested who was a volunteer firefighter.

Jairo Perkins-Grubbs was arrested Oct. 4, accused of starting fires that consumed the DeSabla Market in August and the Lovelock Inn in September, as well as attempts to burn the Magalia Depot.

In late November a judge found there was enough evidence to hold him for trial on a number of felony arson counts. He is in custody in the Butte County Jail in Oroville, and is due back in court Jan. 12 for further arraignment.

9) Two occupations in Chico in 2011

In October, inspired by the "Occupy Wall Street" protests in new York City, a number of people calling themselves "Occupy Chico" set up camp in the City Plaza. The number of protesters fluctuated from a handful at night to larger numbers during rallies and special events.

The peaceful protest opposes corporate influence on politics and stands up for issues including health care, education, affordable housing, protection of resources and the environment.

A daytime presence is being maintained and there are marches each Saturday at noon, but in early December, the overnight occupation was ended.

By then, a group called "Occupy Chico State" was set up on the lawn in front of Kendall Hall. The group had planned to occupy the university administration building, but the doors were locked before they got there. The issue there was largely the rising cost of education. Again the protest was peaceful. It broke up after a week as final exams were approaching.

8) Realignment crowds county jails

Prison "realignment" went into effect Oct. 1, in response to a federal judge's order to reduce the state prison population by 30,000.

Although many people believe (and some news outlets reported) the state just dumped those thousands of inmates on the counties, that's not the case. No one is being released early. Inmates aren't being transferred from prisons to county jails.

Instead, when inmates convicted of crimes considered non-serious, non-violent and non-sexual are due for release from prison, they are assigned to county probation departments, rather than parole agents.

In addition, when people are newly convicted of those kinds of crimes, they are put in the custody of the counties rather then being sent to state prison.

It's resulted in crowding at the Butte County Jail, but not overcrowding. The county had come up with plans for alternative forms of custody, and programs to try and get prisoners out of the cycle of repeated crimes.

But there is cause for concern: In December one of the "non-nons" released into Butte County had been shot dead in a Magalia home invasion. A second who was supposed to report to San Joaquin County had instead turned up in Chico, where he allegedly killed his mom and dumped her body in her septic tank.

7) Mandatory burn ban not getting results

This summer the Chico City Council approved a mandatory indoor wood fire ban on days this winter when a form of air pollution was predicted to be bad.

It replaced a voluntary advisory that's been in effect for several years and was given some credit for cleaning the air, as the number of days when particulate pollution built up above federal health standards was declining.

Things haven't gone as might be expected however. The ban has been ordered 15 days this winter, but the federal standard has still been exceeded 16 days in just the first two months of winter.

Last year the voluntary advisory was issued five times, and the standard was exceeded 11 times in the full four-month period.

6) Higher education gets higher priced

While state budget cuts have hit pretty much everywhere, higher education seems to have taken a bigger whack than others. And students are feeling it in their wallets.

This month, the California State University, University of California and community college systems were each hit with a $100 million cut. For the CSU system — including Chico State — that came on top of a $650 million cut in the budget approved in July, and $584 million the year before.

That has meant reduced class offerings, and fewer openings for students.

And for those students, it has meant an almost 80 percent increase in student fees in three years, with the annual tuition fee rising from $3,048 in spring 2009 to $5,472 now.